It wasn't until Izuku was halfway done putting on the costume that he realized the irony in one of the design choices. When he was creating the outline for the costume, he wanted to include a nod to his personal idol, All Might. So he had included two thick rods vaguely styled to resemble All Might signature bangs with the purposes of acting as electric rods against electrically inclined quirk users and as batteries for any of his gadgets that might require a charge. His outfit was also a signature green color much like the costume he wore as a vigilante. So, when he put on his mask/helmet, it looked like he had green horns.

If it wasn't exactly what he asked for, he would go to the Support department immediately to get it changed. He wasn't going to escape it, would he?

As he began strapping on his accessories, he couldn't help but listen to some of his classmates talk about All Might and his introduction.

"I mean, All Might is definitely bigger than life."

"He commanded the room like he ran the show?"

"Yeah, but what about that dorky entrance?"

"Dorky entrance? Fuck off grapeballs, you don't have shit to stand on. Are you fucking wearing a diaper?"

"N-no! I just mean…"

"No man, I get it. He narrated his entrance. That is kinda lame."

"I think it was pretty manly to just be himself like that. I don't care if All Might isn't the coolest, he is still the best."

"Shitty hair, what does that even mean?"

"All Might is cool, but not cool cool ya know? Like your grenades, those are fucking rad!"

Izuku was drawn from the conversation as Kaminari (he thinks he got the name right) gushed over Kacchan's outfit.

He still adored the number one hero, but there was some truth to what they were saying. He wasn't perfect and suave. He wasn't the smoothest talker. He was a guy. A guy who looked larger than life, but still just a guy. For maybe the first time, he just wondered little things about All Might, the type of factoids and fodder you might see in trashy magazines. How'd All Might take his coffee? Natto, yes or no? Are 'Wash is Life' memes funny to him? Does he even know those memes exist? He was walking side by side with Sero at this point, fortunately not mumbling aloud his every thought, to the exit. From the corner of his eye, he saw Sero was trying to get out his jitters from going into real combat when he noticed his jaw slack in surprise. He wondered what could have stunned him, but looking forward gave him all the answers he needed.

"I really like your costume, Midoriya. It suits you wonderfully. And yours too, Sero. I like the color scheme." Momo was complimenting them, but Izuku was only half listening. He was cursing himself, mostly, for being easily distracted.

Kazuho could never see Momo's costume. She would make fun of him and what he thought about seeing her in the number, and he hated that quite a few of them would be spot on. He understood the logistics of it but… maybe he could begin a design on a superior costume that didn't guilt trip him. He knew that wasn't fair to her, he knew there had to be a good reason for this bold design, but he was a mess.

"Like yours too. Really useful for your quirk." He wasn't even forming proper sentences. She smiled at him, apparently appreciating the compliment. He noticed her eyes went to his forehead for a second, before she snickered.

"Greenhorns" She sputtered between a few chuckles, Sero looking on mostly confused. It was obvious to Izuku that he could either explain all the context to his new friend, or keep him in the dark.

"Inside joke, blame my sister." He didn't need everyone in his life calling him that.

Sero took a moment to think, then tapped his nose. "I get ya, Midoriya. And don't worry, I've started leg day." He bent his knees, and out of the corner of his eye Izuku noticed Momo was lost.

"It is nothing, really. So, um , what do you think All Might will be having us do?

"Young… Midoriya," the trio turned to catch their teacher putting away a roster list with their photos. Smart of them to add it for their teachers. "I can answer that statement for you AND the rest of your class! The best method is to throw you future heroes into the deep end, so we are going to start with Indoor Combat Training!"

Quickly, questions began pouring in from various students before All Might had a chance to elaborate "What exactly is that?"

"Are you going to expel one of us if we aren't up to par?"

"Monsieur Might, do you like my cape?"

"How badly can we beat someone up in combat?"

"Calm down, calm down, I cannot listen to you all at once. I will explain everything in just a moment. But yes, young-" All Might cut to his roster list, "Aoyama, your cape is maginifique!"

Quietly, so only Sero and Izuku could hear her, Momo muttered, "He butchered that pronunciation. It's Mag-nuh-feek, not whatever that was." She sounded out the proper way of saying it.

Izuku couldn't help but be amused at how offended she was at the mistake. He also liked seeing All Might could be human. It couldn't help but be a confidence booster for a guy like him. This whole thing should be great.

…

Team E included Izuku Midoriya. It did not include his friend Momo Yaoyorozu, or Hanta Sero, or Juzo Honenuki or even someone like an Eijiro Kirishima.

"Ok techno, does your big brain have any plans for this?" Kyoka Jiro was not impressed by him, but they had to work together anyway. They were the villians in this scenario. They were protecting a paper-mache nuke that they needed to prevent the heroes from reaching. They were in the middle of going up stairs to figure out where to place it.

Which were the american girl Pony Tsunotori and the recommended student Shoto Todoroki.

"Well, our main enemy is Todoroki's ice. The obvious move by him is to cover the entire office in it, freezing us in place before entering in casually. Based on all the ice he made the other day, I think that is a legitimate strategy for him. My boots can maybe break up ice once or twice, but if he has stamina there isn't much I can do. What about you, Jiro?"

"Well, unlike you, I should be good for a while. With my speakers, I can plug in my ears and play my heartbeats and that should be able to break up ice. So you can play bait while I protect the nuke, sound good?"

Izuku had begun to ignore the girl as he mumbled nonsense. She looked frustrated and used one of her ear jacks to stab him in the cheek, surprising him. "What the heck!"

"Don't ignore me just because you think you're hot shit!"

Izuku was very confused. "But I don't…"

"Sure you don't. You're just some gimmick act on the big stage right now. Did you hear my plan?" Jiro was looking really annoyed at him, and he wasn't sure what he had done to get this level of aggro.

"I mean, I did. But, um, I thought of something better once you explained to me about the speakers. I think, well, you should go out in lead while I have the bomb."

"And why is that?"

"Assuming he does the big freeze, I can break out once while you can actually interact in a fight against the ice. Plus, combat and or panic should get your blood pumping making your heartbeats even more effective. So if you engage Todoroki, Tsunotori will go after the bomb. You should be able to know where she is on each floor. You tell me when I can make a break and I will take the bomb and go to the bottom floor and make them chase me down. We should be able to run out the clock that way." He explained the plan, which he could tell by her face she begrudgingly knew was good.

"Sounds nice. But what if Tsunotori intercepts me and you face Todoroki solo?" She made a good point. He doubted this plan would work against him and his more long range quirk.

"Get down to the 3rd floor so you can do your part. I'm gonna set up a fake booby trap for either him to notice and ignore. If I'm lucky, I will be able to stun him with my gloves. If not, we are gonna go down trying." Izuku put a brave smile on his face.

"And why are you so sure I will be able to handle Todoroki or Tsunotori in 1v1. If I don't, you are boned, techno." Jiro pointed out.

He shrugged. "Well, that is the easy part. I know you can kick ass. You wouldn't have made it to U.A. in the first place if you couldn't. It's the one part of the plan I know won't go wrong." He kept smiling, hoping to inspire confidence.

"Alright, alright, I'll get in position. No need to try and flirt with me, Pikachu already does that. And I bet Yaoyorozu wouldn't like you cheating on her." She disappeared out of sight as soon as she said that.

Izuku gritted his teeth. He wanted to go after her yelling that he wasn't flirting and he was not dating Momo but he knew he had to do his part of the plan. He just really hoped it worked.

Quickly prepping a simple snare trap decoy, Izuku got into position, shimmying his way into the top corner of the room with the help of his shoes designed to grip in these sort of situations. The door opened to his side, which would hide him if he had to fight. And then he waited in patience.

…

First off, he was an idiot who made a rookie mistake. Thank god it didn't bite him in the ass, but he had left Jirou alone against two powerful enemies. If they had the forethought to work together, they probably would have steamrolled the game. His blind banking on the team dynamic splitting them apart (and fear of instant failure if he and Jirou were right next to each other and Todoroki iced them) managed to pull through.

Secondly, he forgot to account for how the cold would affect him. He had been totally correct in that Todoroki tried to freeze down the building, but his positioning actually kept him safe enough to hold off using his shoes. It also helped him become very cold and stiff as he waited a few minutes to hear from Jirou. She was free, thankfully, but had been forced to fight Tsunotori which left the ice quirk user to him.

He waited anxiously for Todoroki's footsteps to come into focus and readied himself to attack. He could feel him notice the somewhat obvious trigger that would spring the net. He even heard the boy insult the planning of the trap. He just needed to freeze the net and walk past it so he could make his jump. That wasn't what happened. Instead of freezing the net, he noticed the rapid encroachment of ice coming towards him and jumped from his hiding spot into the room, rolling on the ice and barely scrambling back to his feet.

"I hear you, Midoriya. I'm not sure what you are planning, but it ends here." Neither boy had eyes on the other as the door still provided cover. Or at least it did while Todoroki finally froze the net and safely walked into the room. Izuku knew if he had a second to look at him this fight could be over so he began countermeasures.

Strafing towards the bomb in the other corner of the room, he threw a custom built bolas he had added to his tool set at Todoroki's feet. He was annoyed to see that though his aim had been true, they were swiftly dodged as Todoroki scanned. His second pair of bolas were tightly gripped in his backhand while he found cover behind one of the pillars in the room. "You know Todoroki, I really wish that was the case. But you are definitely no easy opponent to face." Izuku complimented him to bide time.

Footsteps came closer to the bomb. "I don't know what you are trying, your hiding spot is obvious. I'll be ending this now." Izuku felt the rush of cold as Todoroki terminator'd forward and let himself get caught for a moment in the ice. The second Todoroki came into view, however, Izuku used his conserved shoe burst to free himself and jumped towards his opponent. Todoroki didn't seem too concerned as he blocked the wild haymaker from Izuku's left, or when he blocked the bola Izuku tried to use as a club with his right. He didn't expect the strong electrical shock that made him tense up for a few seconds, before either shocking punch landed between his eyes and staggered him. What he hadn't planned for was why Izuku custom built these bolas, so that they could hold a charge well and be used as weapons with melee reach. It was followed up by Izuku falling back a few feet to use the bolas as intended, throwing them and snaring Todoroki's legs together.

Izuku ran up to use the capture tape while Todoroki was distracted but suddenly found himself frozen in place. At first he thought it was metaphorical, like some random bit of guilt, but quickly realized as he was shivering that Todoroki had in fact frozen him solid. He realized Todoroki had landed on his ice power side, and had probably used the existing ice to capture him in a flash freeze. Izuku could do nothing as his opponent spent a few moments untying himself from the bola before walking to the bomb he had been protecting and casually claiming victory.

"HEROES TEAM WINS! Please remove Midoriya from his frozen state and both teams return to the testing area immediately!" They heard All Might say into their comms. As Todoroki unexpectedly used his other side of his body to produce a flame to thaw him (questions for another time) he also heard Jirou in the comm sigh aggressively. "So, did you at least go down fighting Vigilante Boy?"

As soon as he had the chance to do so, he replied to her. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry we lost." He apologized, since he did take a lot on himself and had failed them both.

"Ehh, don't be too hard on yourself. Pretty sure he would have kicked my ass too if I had tried to take his attention. Let's just get back to class." She admitted.

"Indeed. If you had continued with those punches with electrical energy behind them, you could have gotten the knockout and safely tied me up." Todoroki had apparently overheard his comments on the fight and made his statement.

He turned to the powerfully quirked boy and couldn't help but be surprised at the compliment. "Uh, yeah. I had just planned after I hid behind the pillar to charge the bola but when you rushed me with the second wave of ice, I improvised but got stuck on the idea of using the bola to capture you." Izuku shook off the numbing feeling on his body as he began to take the stairs down with Todoroki. "I got lucky overall since if you had used the quickness of the ice from the last attacks the first two times, I think I would have frozen."

"You pushed me to act as quickly as I could to prevent defeat." Todoroki confessed. "I'm also curious if I subconsciously underestimated you. You quickly showed that would be foolish to do. As was mentioned before, you have practical experience."

Izuku could be offended by that statement, but he knew that would be foolish. He had ultimately been complimented. "Yeah, but it also got me in trouble a few times. Including with um, your father one time." He wasn't sure how Todoroki would take that statement. He remembered Momo's words from the other day of conflict being possible between the two.

Things were silent for a few flights of stairs as they reached the bottom floor. He began to wonder if he said the wrong thing. "I assume that means you were the 'buffoon playing hero' who threw the trash can at my father and then sent an apology letter?"

Not his proudest moment. Chasing a guy who had held up a community bank, Izuku had improvised by throwing a trash can at the man to stop him. Unfortunately, Endeavor happened to run onto the scene from an attached alley Izuku hadn't noticed. After beaming the number 2 hero with a load of trash he was only saved by Crawler zipping by and refocusing Endeavor on the criminal chase as he had stolen a few million yen. Izuku immediately crawled away and took a break from vigilantism for a week and a half, sending him an anonymous apology note to Endeavor's official agency.

"Did he say anything about the apology letter?" He had never encountered the hero again, deliberate actions being taken to ensure this, and was curious.

"He brought it home one day and showed us, ranting about your audacity and if you were the sort of vigilante being groomed by Pop Step and Crawler, he should have thrown his weight around and had them arrested years ago." Todoroki recounted. "He had not informed us about what had happened, and when Fuyumi asked for clarification he told us what you had done." As they entered the street below to meet up with Jirou and Tsunotori, Izuku could not help but be fascinated by this insight into the number 2 hero's life. "He reprimanded me for chuckling at him."

He hoped he had a new friend (and never encountered Endeavor in the future.)

…

The next fight was one that nominally was interesting as he was curious if Koda's Quirk would work on Shishida, and if Shishida would be able to detect Tooru with her fully invisible with Aoyama's combat capabilities being the largest unknown. He didn't really get to observe it, however, as he had to entertain a few curious classmates.

"How the heck did you make yourself fit in the corner of the room? That was some horror movie crap!" Kaminari pointed out fairly.

"I mean, it's a matter of balance and shoes that grip well. You could do it if you practiced and got the right gear." Izuku replied.

"It seemed foolish to send Jirou off by herself. If the 'heroes' had been thinking properly, they could have teamed together to defeat her and made their way to you with a second two to one advantage." Momo critiqued him, but he was sure she would tell the rocker girl the same thing.

"I kind of realized that too late and hoped that at least one of them would focus on getting to the bomb instead of eliminating their enemy." Midoriya confessed. " We got lucky on that."

"You seemed pretty good at punching. Do you box?" Sato asked, curious. Izuku shook his head.

"I've never been frozen before. Did it hurt?" Sero inquired to him. Again, Izuku shook his head.

"I just felt really cold. Todoroki freed me before it could do any serious damage."

"That's right!" Mineta suddenly was pointing at the disinterested boy listening to the interrogated Izuku, ignoring the questioning of a few other students. "I thought you had an ice quirk. But then all of a sudden, you can do fire too! That is too OP! You are gonna get all the girls, that's not fair!"

"Nothing is fair in life, raisin shit! Though I can't wait to crush you in a real fight between the two of us, candy cane!" Bakugou began to threaten the still quiet boy.

"Bark bark, bark bark. Todoroki will beat up dog boy real easy." Pony had decided she needed to defend her partner in the most infuriating way possible to the explosion quirk user.

"I'mma bout to turn a bimbo into barbecue if she doesn't shut her trap!" Bakugou's hands were crackling.

"Don't threaten your classmates, Bakugou. That is rude, unprofessional, and unsafe." Momo quickly chastised him.

"This class is kind of chaotic, isn't it?" Tsuyu said aloud to no one in particular, but pretty much everyone heard her.

"Indeed, Miss Asui! Social bonding can wait for off the class clock, as I want you to observe your allies to see what you can learn about them and yourselves! I believe you all missed the lovely leg takedown Miss Hagakure used on Mister Aoyama to prevent further blasts from his laser, making sure his belt was away from her. There is useful information to be had." All Might talked out of his ass to try and get everyone to stop crowding Izuku and focus on the team battles (not that any of them knew that.)

That battle quickly culminated, and was followed by my Tokoyami and Mineta challenging the duo of Sero and Honenuki. After Izuku wished his friends luck, he tried to focus fully on the combat at hand. It was interrupted again with a pointed cough, before the battle could begin. He would have been exasperated if it wasn't for the fact that it was his hero and idol All Might trying to discreetly talk to him! Izuku fought a panic attack as he gave full intention to his larger than life teacher.

"Young Midoriya," He didn't realize the man's voice could be anything than bold as he spoke to him quietly, " you realize that the other teachers warned me about you?"

Izuku wanted to laugh at the idea but was far too nervous to do so. "R-really?" He squeaked, becoming even more embarrassed when he heard himself.

"Indeed. Your exploits had been a topic of discussion since the school had to decide if you would be allowed to retake the entrance exam. I wasn't a part of the discussions, but I heard they were fierce." All Might told him.

Izuku nodded. "Eraser- uh Aizawa-sensei said the same thing once to me."

All Might looked at the boy for a second, long enough for him to realize that other students had noticed the conversation between the two but were not interfering. He could see Bakugou began to fume at the attention he was receiving when All Might spoke again. "From what I understand if Aizawa had not made a few pointed comments speaking on your heroic spirit, you would have been limited to taking the General Studies exam if you intended on coming to U.A." More deliberately, All Might paused again. "If I had been in the room, I must admit I would have pushed for that option."

That actually hurt. Izuku understood it was a completely fair assessment, but hearing it from his hero hurt. "Oh." He meekly, almost unconsciously said aloud at the statement.

"Oh my boy, do not take this as condemnation, but praise! Your showing today was a fine start in proving you too can be a hero. So by all means, go forward and prove my instincts wrong and show the world you belong here." All Might patted his shoulder as he stepped forward and opened the commlink to the students on the battle site. "Now then, your time for preparation has ended. Heroes, your time begins now!"

Izuku focused his attention as his two friends were focused on defending their bomb from the odd couple. Things went immediately astray as Mineta climbed the outside of the building to the top floor before using his balls to break the glass. Immediately Mineta jumped from the building to the horror of everyone watching instinctively, before Dark Shadow caught him on the third floor and placed him on his climbing balls before they worked together to open a window from the outside and enter the building that way.

"Considering his antics, it should not surprise me that Mineta can open a closed window." Momo reappeared by his side as he watched the fight.

He nodded along, not sure what to add. He would have to make sure to keep an eye on Mineta especially regarding Momo as he had already proclaimed her the 'hottest girl in class'. Instead, he focused on analyzing the match. "Yeah, but I hope their cleverness in disguising their building entrance is wasted. These two are fantastic in regards to building traps for their opponents. My main worry is if Honenuki accidentally softens too much of the building support so it collapses on them. He should know what to look out for but unless he has the schematics he can make a mistake."

"Well, fortunately he has Sero by his side." Izuku didn't quite follow Momo's comment. She turned to him and grinned. "You know, the old American saying, anything can be fixed with enough duct tape." Izuku chorted at the line, not expecting that kind of humor from her. Her grin faded into a more serious expression as she asked. "What was that between you and All Might sensei? It was a little weird that he pulled you aside on the first day."

Izuku didn't know if it was rude to talk about the hero literally behind his back so he went with a vague answer. "I had a reputation between all the things I did before now so he was a little curious."

She didn't have anything to say about that. They silently watched as their two friends fought off Tokoyami's scarily powerful Dark Shadow as Mineta had been softened into the wall like he was a teleportation experiment gone wrong. Eventually they managed to get handcuffs on Tokoyami to win the match and the both of them were happy to see them win. As they waited on them to return, she finally had a specific thing to ask him.

"You know I enjoyed our training sessions at the Athletic Hall. We didn't talk about continuing them after the school year began, but I think it would be a good idea."

Izuku was caught off guard. He had enjoyed them too, but… he hadn't really expected her to want to continue them. "I do too. Yeah. Um, do you want to invite.. Uh." Midoriya let his words die out. He was going to ask if she wanted to invite their friends to join them but if he was honest he didn't really want that.

Momo shook her head. "Not this time. Maybe in the future but I think I'd prefer if it was just us." Izuku had to be seeing things, as he refused to believe that she had a faint blush on her cheeks. "My parents have a bunch of things for me planned this week, but I'm free after school Friday. Does that work for you?"

Izuku could only nod. "Of course. Sounds great!" He didn't want to look too excited. But he was super excited. He just needed to make sure Kazuho didn't have any concert plans that day and he should be free.

Should be.

…..